Bid to cut truckers’ hours motors on

Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn’s move last autumn to extend existing EU limits on working hours to the transport sector was, like most attempts at improving working conditions, loved by trade unions but loathed by employers.

While his initiative would also affect maritime and railway transport workers, it is its likely impact on the road haulage sector which is proving particularly controversial.

If Flynn succeeds in persuading EU governments to adopt his proposals, truck drivers would be allowed to work only 48 hours per week, averaged out over a four-month period, bringing them into line with employees in most other industrial sectors.

The only existing Union legislation on truck drivers' hours is a 1985 EU law limiting driving time - which does not include other duties such as loading and unloading - to nine hours per day.

Transport workers, together with junior doctors, were exempted from the European Commission's original 1993 proposal to limit average working hours across all professions after employers and some governments protested that extra flexibility was needed.

Lorry drivers have welcomed Flynn's initiative warmly. "This is an absolutely necessary health and safety measure. Our profession is misunderstood because of a widespread view that driving a lorry is easier than more regular occupations," says Sabine Trier of EU transport workers' union FST.

But road haulage companies claim it would erode slender profit margins in an already hard-pressed industry.

The Commission's widening of the definition of work to include non-driving duties lies at the heart of their concerns. The International Road Hauliers' Union (IRU), which represents EU haulage companies, points out that under this wider definition, most drivers in fact work for up to 55 hours per week.

It argues that drivers might welcome a reduction in working time to 48 hours per week, but would not accept an accompanying pay cut. "This could lead to very difficult wage negotiations," said the IRU's Wim Smolders. "The costs faced by employers could be enormous."

The IRU also fears that EU governments may enforce the measure unevenly, distorting competition between national haulage industries. The Commission argues that separate EU laws obliging hauliers to install tamper-proof tachographs will make it impossible to evade the new restrictions, but employers reject this, pointing out that tachographs only measure driving time.

EU transport ministers are due to discuss the proposal for the first time in March and German Transport Minister Franz Münterfering has said that he would like his counterparts to reach an agreement by June.

Transport ministers have traditionally taken the employers' line in negotiations over working time, mainly because of the immense economic importance of the road haulage sector in influential countries such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

A 1985 Commission proposal to limit driving time and introduce mandatory rest periods was heavily diluted, and many predict that Flynn's latest initiative will suffer a similar fate. However, some EU diplomats say te dominance of left-wing governments, together with a growing acknowledgement of the need to improve road safety, make the outcome less certain this time.

"The ministers will not go as far as the Commission wants, but nor will they dilute the proposal excessively. Germany and France in particular are far more sympathetic," says one.

But while ministers may reach agreement by June, the summer's Euro-elections mean MEPs are unlikely to vote on the proposal until September, so whatever is agreed is unlikely to become law until mid-2000.